Series of Unfortunate Events
I think Gutierrez Brothers Racing (GBR) would say that Virginia Motorsports Park’s Night of Fire race was very eventful. And unfortunately not in a good way. During the more than 10 hour drive down the semi truck had multiple issues which put them on the side of the road servicing the truck. Once at the track things seemed to be in the way up for GBR.
The first test pass was a really good A to B pass in the heat and on the hottest track GBR has ever raced on. 5.31 at 270 mph!! GBR was excited to go back up for test pass number 2 after the drivers did a chip draw to find out which pair and what lane they were taking for qualifying round one.
The second test pass wasn’t as good. During the run the burst panels blew and the team knew there was work to be done when they got back to the pits. Luckily qualifying round one was scheduled at 930 and it was only 6. The team pulled together and got everything off the engine block and watched the GoPro videos on the car but couldn’t find a real answer on why the burst panels blew. After the guys put everything back together JP was trying to spin the supercharger before putting the belt on like always but this time it wouldn’t spin by hand. JP and Phil hurried to take the injector off the car to inspect the blower and found our biggest part failure to date. The rotor in the supercharger was delaminated.
So unfortunately with 30 minutes to spare before the qualifying round one the GBR team had to admit this race wasn’t going to happen for them. Thankfully Virginia Motorsports Park’s team accepted they would be down a top alcohol dragster and understood every time you get in the car and hit the pedal anything can happen.
“It wasn’t a great weekend simply put,” said JP. “But we are home and we are thankful nothing else is broke. We already have a blower in the shop we can use to finish the year out so we are going to pick it all up and set our eyes on Summit Motorsports Park Night Under Fire! We love the track, the staff, and the fans at this race so we are very excited to see what the car can do there against the Michalek Brothers Racing A/Fuel dragster!”
Gates open at 8:00 am. Autograph signing is from 3:15-4:15pm. Pre-Race Ceremony starts at 5:30pm with the show starting at 7:00pm and the best fireworks EVER after that! For more information about Night Under Fire click HERE or to buy tickets click HERE!! If you are going to race don’t forget to stop by and say hi to the team! For the most up to date information and results follow GBR on FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM!!